Developers do not rule out an appeal against the results of the Karolina competition

Ostrava - Some developers who failed in the competition for the redevelopment of the area of the former Karolina coking plant in the center of Ostrava are considering appealing the results. This follows from a survey by ČTK among unsuccessful developers. The competition was won on Wednesday by a decision of the council by the Dutch company Multi Development, which plans to invest 12 to 15 billion crowns in Karolina.
Of the four unsuccessful developers, only ING Real Estate Development, which finished fourth in the evaluation, completely ruled out the possibility of an appeal. They also did not do well in the voting by citizens, who placed them last in the survey. "In our case, we are not considering an appeal," said company spokesperson Renata Kodadová to ČTK.
Radomír Němeček from TriGránit Czech Republic told ČTK today that the company is currently assessing the possibility of an appeal. "At this moment, we see it as the council having legitimately chosen a winner, regardless of our opinion on the voting process," Němeček noted. He added that he considers the voting method very unfortunate and inappropriate for a project of such scale.
On Wednesday, the council voted by first assigning numbers to the developers, which determined the order in which the councilors would vote on them. Then, the councilors decided first on the fifth and fourth places, and subsequently elected the winner, followed by the second and third places. TriGránit Czech Republic, which entered the competition together with Orco Property Group, finished second with the councilors, while citizens evaluated their proposal as the best.
Josef Tobek from ECE Projektmanagement Prague, which participated in the competition along with Passerinvest Group and finished in third place, has not completely ruled out an appeal against the results. "I want to look into this a bit more, because it seems to me that the voting went too quickly, too simply, and too systematically for my taste," Tobek told ČTK. He also believes that the voting method was not suitable.
The decision on a potential appeal is not completely closed in Sekyra Group, which finished last. "We are considering a whole series of options on how to proceed, including legal avenues," stated Radek Polák on behalf of Sekyra Group.
According to the city hall, unsuccessful developers have only one option to appeal the results of the competition. They can submit a proposal to the Ministry of the Interior for a review of the council's decision.
Karolina, whose undeveloped area is more than seven times larger than Prague's Wenceslas Square, is the second-largest undeveloped area in the center of the city in the Czech Republic. In terms of investment volume, it ranks among the most significant current development projects in the country, alongside administrative projects like BB Centrum in Prague 4 or the revitalization of the Smíchov railway station in Prague. Multi Development, which has invested in 18 countries so far, aims to develop it by 2016.
The developer competition faced significant criticism. Karolina has long been the subject of dispute between the city and a group of Polish architects who won an international architectural competition years ago. However, the city ultimately decided not to follow their proposal and announced a developer competition instead. The Czech Chamber of Architects labeled this competition as an unfair architectural competition.